A Magical Night at "Comedy of Errors" at Shakespeare in the Park

[RJ COMMUNICATIONS]

Posted: 6/30/13 at 11:09pm

Hi all,

This comes to you from Jesse Tyler Ferguson's Facebook page about last Thursday night's performance of "The Comedy of Errors" in the rain at Shakespeare in the Park. It brought a tear to my eye so I thought I would reprint it for you to enjoy....


Jesse writes on Facebook:
An amazing night I will NEVER forget.
Last nights performance of "The Comedy of Errors" at The Delacort Theater for Shakespeare in the Park will be an experience I will remember forever. It will go down as one of the most moving nights I have EVER had as an actor. Here is what happened:
About 30 minutes into our 90 minute show it began to rain. Nothing new for an actor doing out door theater. We continued for about 10 more minutes until it began to down pour. Buckets. At that point our stage manager, Cole made an announcement to the audience over the sound system that we would hold until the storm passed. The audience cheered, encouraging us that they were willing to wait out the rain with us. After all, they waited all day for the free tickets that got them into the theater in the first place! (New York theater goers are the beasts. I love them!)
The rain only got worse. I began to realize it would be very unlikely for us to be able to continue. Our dancers would slip, the expensive sound equipment that we were wearing to amplify our voices would be ruined. Still, the audience stayed, only cheering harder when the rain increased.
Finally, the storm lightened and Cole announced that we would begin again shortly which was met with applause and cheers from the audience AND the cast.
Then something beyond mother natures control happened: the sound board fried and shut down. Apparently there wasn't enough time to properly cover all the equipment and now the entire sound system was down. No mics to amplify. No speakers to play music for the dancers. Nothing. Stage Management was about to announce to the audience that we would have to unfortunately call the show.
Then Hamish and I had an idea.
Did George C. Scott have a body mic when he did "The Merchant of Venice" back in 1961 at this same theater?
(Granted, he didn't have to worry about helicopters or private jets flying over the Delacort Theater on their way to the Hamptons).
Lets finish the show wireless. Unplugged!
To my amazement Rebecca Sherman, our company manager took a deep breath and just said "Do it. It will be amazing."
Hamish and I ran out on to the soaking wet stage and announced to the equally wet audience that we would continue! Using Hamish's mother's famed "Linklater Technique" we explained to the audience that they would have to move down as close to the stage as possible to hear. (Only 600 brave people from the originally sold out 1800 seat house had stayed).
What proceeded was one of the most magical hours of my life.
The brilliant De’Adre Aziza started where we left off, with her jazz influenced version of "Sigh No More", the audience snapping along to keep the beat.
One of the dance fueled transitions started with Bryan Langlitz, our dance captain yelling out : "And a 5,6,7,8" as the dancers leapt and flew across the puddled stage.
During a moment that required a sound cue of a bell, I pointed at the church that was meant to be producing the sound and exclaimed "BONG! BONG!"
When Emily Bergl knocked a gun out of Tyler Caffall's hand the entire company, in unison yelled "BANG" and then produced the dying cat sound that was meant to follow.
At one point it started raining sheets again... only this time Cole had no one of stoping us. We just spoke louder to be heard over the rain that was pounding down upon us.
Hamish called it the greatest game of "Chicken" ever played. The audience wasn't leaving because we kept going and we continued on only because the 600 strong stayed put. Everyone was soaked but at this point, who cared. (Apologies to our brilliant costume designer Toni Leslie James who probably cared a little.)
The end of the play ends with a quiet moment I share with my long lost twin. The audience stayed completely still and silent to hear the final words of the play, laughing where the jokes were but then silencing immeaditly to hear the next lines. That's when I lost it. You never would have been able to tell because I was soaking wet but I started to ugly cry.
I was so moved by this shared moment. It truly personified why I am fueled to put on silly costumes and wigs and pretend to be someone else in front of a collected group of strangers.
When we finally reached the end of the play the audience exploded into applause. We didn't bow though....all we could do was applaud right back to THEM.
From this day forward when I am asked why I want to act I will think upon last night. Thank you to the cast of "Comedy of Errors"! Thank you to the crew at the Delacort for being so game. Thank you to the staff at The Public Theater and to the ushers who never flinched. Thank you to the wardrobe and hair department who had to dry all of our clothes and reset our wigs...and again, sorry. Thank you to our Stagemanager Cole and our company manager Rebecca who told us to just go and have fun. Most of all: Thank you to the 600 amazing audience members who cheered us on and stayed. You have no idea what joy you gave ALL of us.
Also, R.I.P. old soggy sound board. You will be missed.



Updated On: 6/30/13 at 11:09 PM

[aasjb4ever]

Posted: 6/30/13 at 11:17pm

My friend shared this on facebook last night, loves it! Great story about the theatre and those who love it.

[RJ COMMUNICATIONS]

Posted: 6/30/13 at 11:42pm

I love where he says "..as the dancers leapt and flew across the puddled stage. " It actually sounds like something Shakespeare might say, as if being in the play has rubbed off on his speech!! Wonderful!!

Tonight was the last night of the show, so this is a great farewell to a memorable production

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 6/30/13 at 11:51pm

Reading that actually got me choked up! Sounds like an incredible experience...love stories like these that remind you how amazing seeing live theater is.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 6/30/13 at 11:54pm

Reminds me of the night the mics blew out during THREEPENNY OPERA and Ellen Greene kept belting out PIRATE JENNY, thinking of that still gives me chills.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 6/30/13 at 11:54pm

Reminds me of the night the mics blew out during THREEPENNY OPERA and Ellen Greene kept belting out PIRATE JENNY, thinking of that still gives me chills.

[Kad]

Posted: 7/1/13 at 12:03am

I have said this before to people and will repeat it again:

Rain nights are possibly the BEST performances during any given production in the Park.

The audience that sticks with it is made up of people who are there because they genuinely really love theatre.

And the performers know that, and are exhilarated by the occasion.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 7/1/13 at 12:19am

This made me so happy to read. It's reasons like this why I love theatre. So touching!

[KirbyCat]

Posted: 7/1/13 at 11:26am

I was there, in my (soaked) bright yellow usher tee. I was cryin' along with him. Such an incredible, beautiful evening of theatre.

[theaterfan862]

Posted: 7/1/13 at 11:55am

This is a perfect example of the magic of theatre! I love live theatre and JTF is such a great guy and a real class act! I wish I could have been there.